A question for Google Adwords experts

[HamiltonIsland]

Hi Google Adwords experts,

We own the trademarks to some keywords. When you search for these keywords, only our ads will ever appear but they don't appear every time a search is made. They're hardly ever appearing now that we've dropped our bid from $1+ to the minimum first page bid (1 cent in some cases).

My question is; are the ads showing less because our bid has dropped so low? If so, why is this? If we own the trademark to the keyword and no one else can display ads, any bid that we submit should be accepted by Google, shouldn't it?

If you can include a link to any articles that will give me more info, i'll vote for your answer.

Thanks!

[flowsimple]

A few things that might answer your question:

1. Regardless of the number of competitors there is still a minimum bid requirement. I have tried to find how Google determines the minimum bid to no avail, but there is some secret sauce for this too
2. If you are bidding on phrase, modified broad or broad match keywords, indeed your dropping the bid is probably accounting for your lack of impressions. You should look at increasing your bids for these.
3. Quality Score. You didn't mention if any of these keywords suffer from a low quality score. If they do then this will also attribute to your ads not being shown as frequently.
4. You mention in a comment you want to find an equilibrium to pay as little to show as much. The "Bid Simulator" often shows a nice curve where you can sometimes see a point of inflection. It somewhat follows the law of diminishing returns. I like to target an 80% acquisition with 20% lost to low CPC for impression share. I think that is the happy equilibrium you are looking for.

[HamiltonIsland]

Hi James, We have trademarked "qualia", which is our ultra luxury resort on Hamilton Island. If you google it, there will be no ads because our ads aren't showing and no one else can bid on that word. So instead of serving our ad for 1 cent, Google aren't serving anything at all. I'm guessing that they might do this because otherwise companies that own trademarks would all be paying 1 cent for their ads and Google wouldn't make as much. E.g. Only Volkswagen can advertise on the keyword "volkswagen" but i'm guessing that Google wouldn't want them to be paying 1 cent for that keyword when they could be paying 60c. However, Google don't mention the amount of your bid as being a factor in deciding whether or not to serve your ad... Do you know what the best way is to find the amount where i'm paying as little as possible but my ad is being served as much as possible? Cheers.

[JamesNorquay]

The problem is even if you own a trademark for a term, people can still bid on the term using broad match and also variations of your brand terms.

I have seen this numerous times, I have worked on a big telco client, and daily we have affiliates and competitors bidding for brand terms, you have to put in the complaints via email to Google on a daily basis to stop it from happening, but affiliates always find loop holes.

But looking into your specific site what is the trademark term "hamilton island" is a generic term, so I am curious to what other term you are referring to.

[SEOLocal92]

OK, i will recommend you to rty take the bid up and track if for few days but the best thing to do and that's what i would do with thing like that because you are going to get many different answers here, just call 1-877-509-4289 for Google Adword , they will get you the correct answer in few min and you will not need to research anymore.

sorry i couldn't help more but i think that will get you the right answer before you spend your time and search for all the answers you will get here

hope that help

Mike

[HamiltonIsland]

Hi Mike,

No, there are no other ads being served because we own that trademark. The problem is that right now, no ads are being served and i'm worried that this is because we've dropped the bids by so much.

Will Google show ads more if you bid a higher amount for them? E.g. Google might serve an ad 100 times a day at $1 and 150 times a day at $2? And if so, how can i find the equilibrium where i'm paying as little as possible but my ad is being served as much as possible?

Thanks in advance!

[SEOLocal92]

Before i can answer that i need to ask you if other ads appearing for your keywords ???

if they do you can file a complaint with Google and this way they will drop and you still be up with your low budget PPC.